The Felice Brothers at Rumba

If an album titled God Bless You, Amigo doesn’t beam warm, welcoming light into your soul, maybe prolonged exposure to The Felice Brothers’ G-free folk rock (as in hootin’, hollerin’, clappin’ ’n’ stompin’) in Rumba’s intimate confines will do the trick. Or maybe it will drill you deeper into your Mumford/Avett/Lumineers-inspired K-hole; to each his own.

For what it’s worth, this prolific combo (nine full-length albums since 2005) has been doing this since before Marcus Mumford ever scraped the fringes of your consciousness (you heard us — 2005) and doing it with testicular fortitude. For proof, look no further than the Felices’ awesome barroom folk anthem “Frankie’s Gun!”, which pulls off the difficult trick of landing halfway between “Like a Rolling Stone”-era Dylan and London Calling-era Clash without coming off like your old dorm mate’s most excruciating populist would-never-be anthems.